Jodi Arias Trial Update: Judge Postpones Ruling on New Defense Motions; Pretrial Hearing Moved to Sept. 16

On Monday, an Arizona judge presiding over the murder trial of Jodi Arias postponed ruling on various motions in the high-profile case.

After meeting with prosecutors and defense attorneys, Maricopa County Judge Sherry Stephens declared that she was not prepared to rule on motions made by defense attorneys Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott before setting a new retrial date, reports ABC15 News. Those motions include the defense's request to allow lawyers to monitor the Twitter accounts of new jurors who aren't allowed to communicate about the trial and a request to prohibit or limit live media coverage of the sentencing retrial.

Because Judge Stephens said the court was not prepared to set a trial date, she scheduled another pretrial hearing for Monday, Sept. 16 to allow herself more time to review the motions. This will also provide the prosecution with adequate time to respond and to possibly set a date to once again begin the penalty phase of the trial, CBS5 reports.

Although Arias was in the courtroom during the brief proceeding, she did not speak.

Arias was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8 in the ghastly death of her ex-lover Travis Alexander in his suburban Phoenix home. Defense attorneys claimed that the 32-year-old California native killed Alexander in self-defense because he was physically and emotionally abusive and sexually exploited her. However, the jury sided with prosecutors who argued that Arias' jealousy drove her to plot and carry out a cruel revenge murder after Alexander began seeing other women following the couple's breakup. Medical examiners found that Arias stabbed Alexander 27 times, primarily in the back, torso and heart. She also slit Alexander's throat from ear to ear, nearly decapitating him, and shot him in the face, before she dragged his bloodied corpse to the shower. In total, the gruesome killing was done in a little less than two minutes.

The original jury only took three hours of deliberation to decide Arias had killed Alexander in an "especially cruel, heinous, or depraved" manner that would warrant the death penalty. However, the same jury failed to reach an unanimous decision on her sentence. As a result, she will face another trial to determine whether she will be sentence with capital punishment or life in prison.